Whence Wombat

I found the t-shirt that started it all. The story behind it is in the first comment.

Combat Wombat

Combat Wombat
and his Saturn
~Lin Daniel

Wombat and wombat

or “jan and prudence”

Wombat and wombat,
jan and Prudence

Hutt River Province, Prince Leonard and jan

I found a couple of pictures, one labeled “Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley” followed by an unlabeled picture of jan with these same two people.

Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley

Prince Leonard, Princess Shirley, and jan

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then I found, in a completely different part of the house, the explanation.

Hutt River Province and Prince Leonard

The Wombat’s Visa to Hutt River Province

The things I find…

Archeology At jan’s House continues. On jan’s dresser I found a sample of Nyquil in New Cherry Flavor, an unopened small bottle of Irish Mist, some really old chocolate on a stick with the label “I had a HOT time at Nadia’s Bachelorette party!” and the image below. jan was fan guest of honor at Arisia 2001, and Ben Bova wrote the appreciation.
~Lin Daniel

jan howard finder, Arisia Fan Guest of Honor, 2001. Appreciation by Ben Bova.

Rainbows from history

From a niche in jan’s bookcase, well ok, tucked in a brick making up part of “boards and brick bookcases”, comes these two slides, tucked in a folded bit of paper. Yes, they’re dusty; some of that wouldn’t come off. The only identification is on the slide frames: Sept 68.

Slide dated Sept 68

Another slide dated Sept 68

Picture Identified!

The original picture posted on Facebook, followed by a copy of the plaque I finally unearthed.

Archeology at jan’s house has found a true puzzle. What is this a picture of? What event, award, celebration…or not, is this? They all look so solemn. All have their plaques at just the right angle so the reflection of the light blocks the name of the group.

And here is the solution to the puzzle.

And here is the award, unearthed from where it was stacked with several other framed awards.

Continuing Archeology – very early pics of jan

These are items I would not have found in my normal straightening of jan’s place. These were in a box on the shelf in his closet, with bits and badges from cons, assorted correspondence and magazines from the late 80s and early 90s.

Black and white, possibly a very young jan.

jan and his parents

I believe this is jan skiing, with an early version of his beard.

WOMBATCON – jan howard finder Memorial and Irish Wake!

WOMBATCON! It’s FREE! Bring your best Wombat stories and be prepared to share!

WEBSITE: http://wombatcon.lindaniel.com/

DATE: 1 June 2013
TIME: Noon until

PLACE: Holiday Inn Wolf Road, Albany, NY
Room Rate: $99/night, Friday/Saturday

See WEBSITE for details and contact info

Oy…Just oy

Archeology At Jan’s House just turned up three old AutoClub cards from 2007, ’08, 09, a credit card with an expiration date of 12/03, and *drum*roll*please* jan’s grade school report cards.
With things like “needs improvement in self control” and under “promptness” the note “stalls”. All I can say is the man was consistent.

Update: corrected original post from “2207” to “2007”. I wish he’d lived until 2207.

Some fun comments on this to be found on jan’s Facebook page.

Like: Grade 2A: “Initiative: Needs improvement in finding of worthwhile things to do.” Really? I guess they had a different idea of worthwhile than jan did.

and

Wait! What? An “unsatisfactory” in science? Grade 6A, first period (the structure of these makes me thing “first period” is the first weeks of that semester), science: “U”. I guess jan had a falling out with his instructor over something, or it was taught boringly. However, the grade improved to an “E-Excellent Achievement” by the end.

There was some debate on Facebook as to whether it was boredom (my usual reason for bad grades) or failing to turn in his homework (several other people’s reasons for bad grades).